where they could squeeze out. There—a gap in the beleaguered guards who now were dealing with not only racks but disgruntled citizens, merchanter crew and a few Remorians, all getting a petty revenge while they could.
“All right. Ansen’s stolen everything not nailed down. I’d say it’s time to get the fuck out of port. What do you think, Tallia? Still want to be part of the crew?”
Her smile was answer enough and they ran, delirious with freedom, toward the secret little slipway in the delta that held the ship.
As far as Holden could see, there was only one tiny cloud on his horizon. Van Gast was going to be his brother-in-law.
* * *
Van Gast staggered to a halt over a narrow alley in the delta, on the roof between two houses that leaned so drunkenly they looked about to fall over. He’d never tried the roofs in the delta before, a risk too far, that the rickety wood might give way. Now guards were in the alleys, on the walkways, everywhere. The roofs were less of a risk than the paths, especially given the state he was in.
“Josie, wait a moment, love. I need to—to catch my breath.”
No fizz in his blood now for the thrill of the chase. No glorious joy/fear twisting through him, making him laugh as he ran. Instead, a sick tide of pain from his arm, from his shoulder where it still leaked blood. Still, here she was, pulling him on, urging him forward, sideways, round the guards that were everywhere. Yet he was spent. His sweat stung the lash marks on his back. His arm twisted and shuddered from the poison still, sent jabbing needles of pain toward his heart, made his breath hard to come by, and his fingers numb. He was slow and getting slower, all his vigor seeping out with the blood from where Josie had shot him. With the thought that all this had been about revenge, nothing more.
He had nothing left, no strength, maybe not even the energy to get up again. He sweated and shivered at the same time, clenching his teeth against it, holding back a groan as another wave of pain washed through him.
She crouched next to him, her face serious for once. No Joshing Josie grin, no soft, private smile. Her eyes lingered on the black lines that still tangled over his shoulder, and she rubbed at her leg, as though in memory of the time those black lines had covered her, almost killed her.
“Since when did Van Gast not enjoy the chase?” An attempt at teasing, but there was a tremor behind it.
“That sodding Skrymir was supposed to keep you safe. Why, why didn’t you escape? That was the whole point of this.” He tried to raise his hand but couldn’t even manage that. Another shudder of cold, of heat. He didn’t need to look to know the poison, though slowed now, was hovering over his heart.
“Why did you choose it, Van?”
Van Gast couldn’t look at her, and squinted up into the smoke strewn sky instead. “Do you have to ask? So you’d have a chance. So you could be free, like you were always meant to be, that’s why. Because I love you, even if you won’t let me say it.”
“You thought you had to ask to know once. You don’t get it, do you? I came because I can’t do this without you, without at least knowing that even if you aren’t there with me, there’s someone out there, someone on my side, who knows the game like he was born to play it. Because I needed to know you’d forgiven me. Because I need you. Don’t make me say it. You know why I came for you.”
“I’m irresistible?” Van Gast managed a weak grin. “Heck of a way to get some time alone, love.”
She laughed at that. “Yes, you are that, and incorrigible too. And I can’t do it without you. I can’t be me properly, not without you. But you love me because you can’t ever catch me,” she said, soft, sad, like she wanted it some other way.
Yet he couldn’t find the words to say, the ones that would convince her that it wasn’t true, he’d love her any way he could get.
“If I let you catch me—once I’m yours, the magic will go. Another pretty face will take your fancy and you’ll be gone, lost in the chase again. It’s the only time you’re happy, when you’re chasing. So